Whittie Posted January 21, 2014 Author Posted January 21, 2014 Hi Dimitri, Any hints on where to buy the stuff would be awesome. My ring around of the local car parts shops last weekend was futile. We have stone chips already and are well acquainted with their paint stripping ability. However, without the pressure of last week the car wouldn't have been finished, so a few stone chips were necessary. I have the photographer booked for Sunday week, so the car will be 100% by then Quote
Linton Posted January 21, 2014 Posted January 21, 2014 I had a car done years ago, it was just one of those graphic design places that do the stick on signs or graphics on cars HTH Quote
Grandad Posted January 21, 2014 Posted January 21, 2014 Your nut thread pitch was out by .25mm enough to ruin the threads! You're exactly right but who checks the thread pitch on new wheel nuts supplied with new wheels??? From now on...Me! Might b e a good idea to put that clear stick on stone guard stuff on the panels behind the tyres...with the semi's flicking up tons of debris, you'll reach the undercoat in weeks...I can take a pic of my car to illustrate A pic of your car will be a great help thanks. When the car was silver I always had a spray can of touch up paint handy and would spray the peppered areas regularly to keep the car looking as presentable as possible but we now want to protect it before it gets damaged. The tyre fitter who has known the car for years couldn't believe what we've done with it and after saying it's too good to put on the track said at least put some film on it and gave me vague directions of how to find the local body protection expert, so on leaving the tyre shop I drove around a bit looking for him without success and went home. Once home I made a couple of calls and found out the guy trades as Protec and does a lot of upmarket cars so I got in the shopping trolley and went to see him, I wandered into his workshop to find him fitting protection to a brand new Maserati and it was only a really close inspection that revealed it had film on it so I was impressed, he said he covered a GT3 Porker that did Targa Tas and apart from the gravel that gets thrown up by sticky tyres, the driver tested it with a few off road excursions through scrub, when the car returned to Perth the film was removed revealing unmarked paint, Ok I'm impressed, how much does it cost? What sort of car do you have? 260Z. It's not blue is it? It is actually. I saw it go by earlier and thought, wow you don't see those too often, I don't have a template for those so I will need to make one, it's not just a matter of getting the Stanley knife out you know, I need to make a template so I can use the computer cutter, I think you'll be looking at somewhere between $800 and $1400. Gulp! (reply in squeaky voice) I'll bring the car in for you to quote it. NOT!!! I think we're heading in the right direction now, I know how to apply film so tomorrow I'll contact my printer friend and see if she can supply what we need then I can attack it with the Stanley knife, even if I don't get it right first time I'm thinking I'll still be in front coz $800 should buy a lot of it. TBC Cheers Dad Quote
Grandad Posted January 23, 2014 Posted January 23, 2014 Hi All I have another deadline to keep me motivated, Whittie has a photographer mate who wants to shoot the car the weekend after next so with that in mind I let the KIWI loose on the first of the Yokis. The Aust Post courier called yesterday and look what he delivered. Very sexy but no hose connectors, a quick stop off at our local race shop and I had what I need but my wallet was considerably lighter. This will fit where the old fuse-able links and voltage regulator were I just need to fabricate a couple of brackets and decided to use rectangular ali rod so picked up an off cut from a local window fabricator, of course had to be polished. I don't mind doing the polishing thing occasionally but don't want to be doing it regularly so after doing a trial fit I lacquered it. The catch can also got the lacquer treatment. Now all that's left is to fit it. I've done a bit of research on the vinyl and found how to instructions all over the net and it doesn't look difficult, I have a friend in the printing business so she'll be getting a call first thing tomorrow. Cheers Dad Quote
Grandad Posted January 25, 2014 Posted January 25, 2014 Hi All One of the final jobs left to be done is fitting new door seal rubbers as the old ones are no longer up to it so off I went to my local Clark Rubber store only to be told that they're out of stock but they have it on order and it will be in early Feb, (this is sadly an owner operated "Franchised Business" so there's non of that friendly, just a moment please Sir I'll check to see if any of our other stores have some) anyway not wanting to wait that long I went to the next Clark Rubber store and wouldn't you know it, they had it, all two meters of it which of course was a great help so I fumbled along through their stock and found something I thought might just do and asked for a cutoff that I could use to test fit, they gave me a bit that was shorter than I would have liked but anyway at least I had some and it fitted rather well so I went back and bought the amount I needed. We replaced this rubber not long after acquiring the car and have always had leaking doors but put it down to poor door fit but I'm thinking I might have stumbled onto the problem, time of course will tell. Here's the old rubber and the new with the old at the top, can you pick the difference? Look closely, there will be a test. It was only after fitting it that it looks as though this is a perfect fit. Cheers Dad Quote
Grandad Posted January 27, 2014 Posted January 27, 2014 Hi All In getting the car going for its track debut we simply threw the door windows in without adjusting them so that's currently a task in hand, fortunately the late 260 has plenty of adjustment so all will be good given enough time. When that's done it's time for door trims to go back on so I gave them a scrub and then a once over with KIWI, the thing to be aware of in doing this is that any polish put on will eventually come off and better it does that on a polishing cloth than clothing, this process takes longer than a wipe over with Armorall the result is the same but this lasts longer and doesn't attract dust. These pics are of the passenger side, the driver side results were more dramatic but sadly the pics didn't work. Cheers Dad Quote
Moderators Zedman240® Posted January 27, 2014 Moderators Posted January 27, 2014 Theres always a million details to take care of after the rebuild! With the protective film,, I was thinking of just placing it in the areas where stone chips are most common; like front of bonnet, spoiler, area just above the dogleg and lower part of rear quarters etc... The whole car done while great is way to expensive. Just key areas will suffice. Quote
Grandad Posted January 27, 2014 Posted January 27, 2014 With the protective film,, I was thinking of just placing it in the areas where stone chips are most common; like front of bonnet, spoiler, area just above the dogleg and lower part of rear quarters etc... The whole car done while great is way to expensive. Just key areas will suffice. Hi Zedman240® We've gone full circle on this one starting with leading edge protection much like your suggestion to almost full body protection which of course comes at significant cost then back to leading edge protection. I e-mailed a few companies and here's one reply I received, it's a classic example of CYA (cover your ass) Thanks for the image. Sorry but after carefull consideration I wouldnt apply PP film to your car. If the film needs to be removed it may peel the cars paintwork as well as its not original paintwork. (Im not willing to take the chance of film lifting paint after a period of time ) Regards, Luc Del Casale This guy was talking 5K to do the car. Anyway I've secured local supply of the film and will apply it myself to the most vulnerable areas and in a sense we've got 5K in up our sleeve for paint touch up. Cheers Dad Quote
Grandad Posted January 28, 2014 Posted January 28, 2014 Hi All I picked some film up today, it looks pretty unassuming. I've watched the how to vids on the net and got some tips from the supplier so decided to experiment on a mud flap. That cut out looks pretty ordinary but I will smooth the edges and the end result will be perfect. The material I'm working with currently is almost totally inflexible, it is currently in a three ply configuration with an inflexible backing sheet attached to the malleable protection film covered by another inflexible transit protection film, the how to vids show this material to be highly maneuverable so i decided to test it and found it performed way beyond my expectation so am now expecting a great result in spite of those people who told me it must be computer cut. Here the outer layers are at full stretch but the inner protection film still has more to go. Here's a how to. http://www.altapac.com/index.php/car-protection/car-protection-films Cheers Dad Quote
Grandad Posted January 30, 2014 Posted January 30, 2014 Hi All I've fitted plenty of decals to vehicles over time so figured this would be well within my capability, this film is amazing stuff to work with and is way easier than I was expecting, I'm loving it. When fitting decals I have used a dish washing solution as a slip agent which works perfectly well but baby shampoo is recommended for this because the film is transparent and dish washing liquid can leave a visible residue, so I dutifully followed directions and bought some baby shampoo. My first attempt was the drivers door cup, we've had to put tape on the handle because it touches the body, I soon found the limits of this material so had to adjust my thinking and go with half cover. I've trimmed the front mud flaps to fit so decided to apply film to the inside. I decided to apply film to the bottom of the guard and where the mud flap touches the guard. So finally the front flaps are on. Cheers Dad Quote
Grandad Posted January 31, 2014 Posted January 31, 2014 Hi All There's nothing like a dead line to maintain motivation, the track debut was one and tomorrows photo shoot is another and it looks like DADSON are gonna make it...Just. The last bits of the car were thrown together for the engine break-in and track event so there were no door trims and the windows didn't move but that didn't matter, at least the drivers window moves now and both door cards and trim are on so it looks complete. I've taken a lot of pics of the rebuild for this thread but as I think I've mentioned previously it is actually aiding me in getting thing right like this one that probably would have gone unnoticed. I had to wait for the film on the inside of the drivers mud flap so adhere fully before I could fit it but it's on now so we're good to go for the photo shoot tomorrow, I just need to find out where it is. Cheers Dad Quote
Whittie Posted January 31, 2014 Author Posted January 31, 2014 I sent you a txt message an hour before you posted this. I also tried to call, but no answer.... Bring on the photo shoot tho, the car looks incredible!! Thanks dad Quote
Grandad Posted February 1, 2014 Posted February 1, 2014 Hi All Car's good to go to the shoot and I'm just a little excited, I'll take some pics of the photographer taking pics and put them up later today. I can't help myself I'm in the mood. Cheers Dad Quote
Whittie Posted February 1, 2014 Author Posted February 1, 2014 Photo shoot went great, and the photo's are amazing!!! Magazine shots are looking promising and so I can't share the ridgy didge picks, but here is one of the scene: OK, I got hold of one to sneak in: Quote
Grandad Posted February 1, 2014 Posted February 1, 2014 Hi All It's been a great day but I've been out in the sun for most of it so am now feeling completely stuffed but happy. Yes it happened again this morning, I hadn't gone more than 5ks from home when stopped at a set of lights a guy beside me in a 4x4 wound his passenger window down and said Wow nice Datsun you've got there so we chatted until the lights changed then shortly after that when I was on the freeway I noticed a 370Z catching me rather quickly, we cruised together for the next 25ks, that was really cool, two brand new Zed cars together one the latest model and the other the original. The photo shoot was a lot of fun, we went to an isolated location in a new subdivision so we could have our own space without other vehicles around, I learned a lot about pic angles and copied some of them which I will post later but first some pics of the crew and set up. Getting the angle right. Picking up stones. Long interior shot with a remote flash inside the cab. Engine bay. The pics taken today will be offered to some car mags for publication so can't be released to us until they've finished with them so here are some I took on my Brownie at about the same angle albeit without the trick lighting and computer editing. Hope I haven't bored you. Cheers Dad Quote
Whittie Posted February 1, 2014 Author Posted February 1, 2014 Nailed it! Up high, front 3/4 shot - brilliant! Quote
420BRB Posted February 5, 2014 Posted February 5, 2014 links to high res photos? they look awesome! Quote
Whittie Posted February 5, 2014 Author Posted February 5, 2014 Unfortunately nothing at the moment. I'm catching up with the photographer on Saturday to pick the final shots for printing. Due to Media Rights, he won't be able to release the high res shots until after the magazines have been printed, could be 3-6 months away. He did these ones for his website and that is all he can do at the moment. Quote
Grandad Posted February 8, 2014 Posted February 8, 2014 Hi All Our next event is 22 Feb and I need to have another wheel alignment done to add more caster but I don't want to drive round town on sticky race tyres so collected the old stockies from Whittie the other day, the last time I tidied them up was ten years ago so they're not looking as sharp as I want them to. The car was delivered new in England meaning that the stockies have done time on English roads so were quite degraded when we got them but with enough determination, man hours and material they came up quite well. Fast forward ten years and this is how they look. This is the worst. I figured that because I clear coated them it would be a simple enough job to touch up the black then wipe the clear off with gunwash, give the alloy a quick hand polish then reapply the clear, job done, after all Murphy's nowhere to be seen so first up is a quick wash to remove brake dust then give them a round with my favorite KIWI. I masked the tyre and cut loose with the gloss black. So far so good now for a quick wipe with Gunwash a quick hand polish and we're done, enter Murphy, after ten years the clear has well and truly cured and took significant effort to remove then the alloy didn't want to know about hand polishing, suddenly it was a major Autosol machine polish again. With the machine polish done it was time for some more gloss black followed by a Gunwash cleanup then finally a coat of clear. Here's the finished worst wheel next to the second worst. And finally a direct before and after comparison. It's really interesting that the old 14" rims fitted with balloon tyres actually have a greater rolling radius then the 16" rims fitted with low profile tyres. When I get all four done and fitted I'll post a pic. Cheers. Dad. Quote
George Posted February 8, 2014 Posted February 8, 2014 Great job! Would look smashing on the car. Quote
peter t Posted February 8, 2014 Posted February 8, 2014 As always another top job from the master. Can't wait to buy whatever mag this will feature in. Quote
Moderators PB260Z Posted February 8, 2014 Moderators Posted February 8, 2014 Hi That wheel looks amazing, if you don't mind me asking roughly how many man hours did it take ? Cheers PB Quote
nizm0zed Posted February 9, 2014 Posted February 9, 2014 Hi That wheel looks amazing, if you don't mind me asking roughly how many man hours did it take ? Cheers PB Not really a fair question, as he is no ordinary man. Quote
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